Electric and other imitation fire



Feb. 26, 1935. A. N 1,992,540

ELECTRIC AND OTHER IMITATION FIRE Filed July 5, 1953 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Alber+ Edw NQMLQYI |-v E N'Fora a Armin ELECTRIC AND OTHER IMITATION FIRE Filed July 5, 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ausefl Ed v 4NVENTOR:

Allarnav- Feb. 26, 1935. NEWTON 1,992,540

ELECTRIC AND OTHER IMITATION FIRE Filed July 5 195v- 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Att omev Feb. 26, 1935. I E, NEWTON 7 1,992,540

ELECTRIC AND OTHER IMITATION FIRE Filed July 5, 1935 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Al eri- Edwa vd Newl'on Attorney Patented Feb. 26, 19 3 5 IUNITED STATES ELECTRIC" AND OTHER IMITATIONF'FIRE Albert-Edward Newton, Birmingham, England, assignor to George Henry Collins and Herbert Francis. Collins, lBirmingham, England Application July .5, 1933, Serial'No. 679,087 n In Great Britain July 9, 1932 9 Claims. (01. ara- 15) This invention relates to electric and other imitation fires and refers more particularly to flresof the kind including a flicker device to produce flickering light which is transmitted to imitation fuel, to create an appearance of burning fuel and/or to a screen to create an appearance of flame and/or smoke, the object of the invention being to provide an improved or simplified construction and an improved flame and smoke effect.

Referring to the drawings:-

Figure 1 is a perspective view of one form of fire constructed in accordance with this invention.

Figure 2 is a cross sectional side elevation taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a rear elevation of the flre shown in Figure 1 showing the flicker device and the reflectors and taken with the back cover plate removed.

Figure 4 is a perspective view ofthe hollow body forming part of the flicker device shown in Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the light source of the flicker device showing the method of mounting the hollow body.

Figures 6 and 7 are cross sectional views of the reflectors taken respectively on the lines 66 and 77 of Figure 3.

Figure 8 is a detail plan view taken on the line 88 of Figure 2.

Figure 9 is a rear elevation of the lower part of the fire shown in Figure 3 showing a modified construction.

Figure 10 is a part sectional side elevation taken on the line 10-10 of Figure'9.

In the construction illsutrated in Figures 1 to 8 the fire comprises the usual casing 11 formed from sheet metal, and of generally conventional form, the casing having the usual grate 12 to provide a chamber 13 in which is mounted the flicker device generally designated at 14, and a pair of reflectors 15 and 16 of generally rectangular form.

A cover plate 1'7 is provided for closing the rear of the fire and this is made detachable to facilitate access to the chamber.

For-closing the top of the chamber 13, translucent plates 18 and 19 are provided and these comprise two thicknesses of rolled or embossed glass 20 between which are placed one or more sheets of colouring material, for example, cellophane. V

The plate 19 is adapted to carry inthe front part of thefire, imitation fuel 21 and above and'behind this there is p ovided a screen 22f in the form of a sheet ,metalmember having'a'plane" matt light receiving surface extending in. an up-; ward and forwardly inclined direction, theflarrangement being such that the platelBisdisposed vertically beneath the screen. I

The flicker device 14 is arranged centrally: within the chamber and the reflectors '15 and 16 are disposed on either side of it with theirmajor axes substantially parallel and inclinedupwardly at an angle of approximately 30 to the horizontal, the reflectors beingarranged to change. the direc g tion of the light beams received from the flicker device and to reflect them in an upward direc-' tion on to the screen and on to the imitation fuel. The flicker device comprises an electric lamp, 23 disposed vertically and surmounted with a metal cap 24 of hemispherical form havinga number of vertical arms' 25 which embraceithe lamp andwhich are secured detachably thereto, at their lower ends by a spring 26 which embraces the lamp cap. l v

The cap 24 is provided at its apex with a pivot pin 2'1 upon which is'mounted for rotation on a vertical axis around and above the lamp an opaque sheetmetal hollow body 28, of generally inverted cup like form, and having a dome shaped top 29 carrying a dependent cy1indricalskirt'30.

For mounting the hollowbody on the pivot-pin 27, the latter is engaged by a cap a 31 of hemispherical form provided in the top 9; and for retaining the body in position when the fire istilted; or inverted, the flickerdevice is so dispos'edthat the cap 31 is arranged immediately beneath the translucent plate 18.- The usual radially arranged inclined vanes 33 g are provided so that the upward air current induced by theheat from the lamp will operate on the vanes to produce the rotation of .the hollow body, and these vanes are formed integrally by slitting the material of the top 29 and then bending up the partially severedportions disposed between the slits; the vanes being so arrangedthat the hollow body when viewedin plan rotates in a clockwise direction. I

hus, gaps or openings 34 are provided between the vanes through which light can pass and by cutting away the front part of the hemispherical lamp capj24, as shown'at 35,1light can pass from the lamp, through the gap thus provided and through the openings 34 to'theupper parts of' the imitation fuel which are therebyilluminated, whiletostill further increase the amount of light passing more orless upwardly directly to the fuel, the cylindrical lower part of; the top 29 "of the hollow body is cut away to a great extent to provide openings 36 of a considerable area, leaving only small integral connecting portions 37 carrying the cylindrical skirt 30.

For the purpose of transmitting moving light beams to the reflectors and producing images moving with respect thereto the cylindrical skirt 30 of the hollow body 28 has formed therein bow shaped slits 38 which are comprised in two groups, each group being arranged helically and extending half way round the hollow body, and

arranged more or less horizontally with their major axes substantially parallel to their direction of movement.

Each group comprises three-pairs of slits and the slits in each pair are disposed at different levels and in overlapping relationship, the higher slit having its convex side uppermost and the lower having its convex side facing downwardly.

In order to increase the irregularity of the moving images, one or more parts of the interior sfurfaceiofthe hollowbody are bright, while another part or parts may be either dull, black or images will move also in correspondingly opposite directions; thedirection of rotation of the hollow body being such that the images produced on the reflector 15 will move in a direction towards the plane of the screen and opposite to the direction of movement of the images falling on the Yreflector.16.

Thus, owing to the forward inclination of the light receiving surface of "the screen 22, the ime ages falling on the reflector 15 move in a direction towards the lower edge of such surface, while the images falling on the reflector 16 will move in a corresponding opposite direction.

In order that the images produced on the screen of the'flame or smoke should appear ,to be moving in the same upward direction; it is necessary that the direction of movement of the images falling upon the reflector 15 should be reversed thereby. For this purpose, the reflector 15 is made curved in a cross section transverse to an axis passing through the axis of rotation of the hollow body and is disposed with the concave side uppermost, while the reflector 16 has its corresponding section plane, as is shown clearly in Figures 6 and 7, and both are made of a slightly curved form in a longitudinal direction with the concavity uppermost in order to concentrate the light beams on the surface of the screen.

The reflectors may be made of any suitable material such as polished-or chromium plated metal and are carried 'byoutwardly extending arms formed integrally with a U-shaped bracket 40, the vertical arms of which engage inrecesses 41 formed on opposite sides of a rectangular metal slide 42; having a. central aperture 43 through whichpassesthe lamp holder 44, the latter being mounted upon the horizontal part 45 f thebracket-40. v

' The recesses 41 areformed by slitting thematerial and then bending down the partially severed-portions46, the-vertical arms of thebracket 40 being afterwards secured to these portions by rivets.

The slide 42 is slidably mounted in guides 47 and has an integral handle 48 so that the flicker device 14 and the reflectors 15 and 16 can be withdrawn through the back of the fire as a complete unit and their relative positions will always remain unchanged.

For the purpose of increasing the amount of light falling upon the front part of the fuel a plane horizontal reflector 49 of rectangular form is positioned below and adjacent to the front of the lamp and s0 disposed with respect thereto as toreceive from-it a non-flickering light which is reflected on to the under surface of the imitation fuel through openings or spacings therein to produce a glowing fuel effect.

The reflector 49 is mounted upon a bracket 50 formed integrally with the slide 42 and is disposed with its longer sides more or less parallel to the fire front.

The front part of the grate 12 has imitation grate bars 51 behind which is mounted a translucent plate 52 comprising a rolled or embossed glass sheet 53 having behind it a'sheet of colouring material 54, such as cellophane, the rear surface of which is covered with a metal plate 55 having a number of vertical openings 56 arranged in regular groups or spacings. 1

The metal plate 55 is disposed in a forwardly and upwardly inclined position and. has itsrear face polished so that some of the light beams received from the flicker device are reflected thereby upwardly to the top portion of the fuel, while the remaining light falling on the plate passes through the openings 56 so that a flicker ing glow is seen through the grate bars.

One or more electric heating elements are incorporated into the fire and these are mounted above the screen as at 57.

In the modified construction shown in Figures 9 andlO, the two thicknesses of glass 20 of the translucent plates 18 and 19 are replaced respectively by single sheets 58 and 59 of coloured celluloid, and in order to increase the irregularity of the appearance of flame and smoke produced on the screen, inclined plates 60 of rolled or embossed glass are provided above each reflector 15 and 16 between these and the celluloid sheet 58 to provide a refracting surface fordispersing the light beams. The plates are carried by a pair of spaced arms 61 extending transversely of the flre, the arms being of unsymmetrical shape to provide for different inclinations of each plate.

A similar plate 62 is mounted, immediately above the top of the hollow body 28 for the same purpose, and this serves also to retain the body in position when the flre is inverted.

What I claim then is:

1. An imitationfire, having in combination a light receiving surface, a pair of reflectors, a light source disposed substantially between said reflectors, a body rotatably mounted around said light source, said body havingportions for allowing the passage of light beams from said source to said reflectors andproducing on the latter images of said portions, some of which are moving across one of the reflectors in a direction towards the light receiving surface, whileothers are .moving across, the remaining reflector in a direction away from the. surface, one of said reflectors being adapted to change the direction of movement of the light beams, transmitted; therefrom, and both reflectors being adapted toreflect onto said light receiving surface said images moving in substantially the same general direction.

2. An imitation fire, having in combination a light source, a screen, a reflecting surface, a rotatably mounted body, said screen having a light receiving surface for receiving light from said reflecting surface, anddisposed at an inclination to the axis of rotation of said body, said body having portions for allowing the passage of light from said light source to said reflecting surface to produce on the latter images of said portions moving in a direction towards an edge part of said light receiving surface, said reflecting surface being concave to reverse the direction of movement of said images with respect to the light receiving. surface of said screen.

3. An imitation fire, having in combination a screen, said screen havinga reflectng surface arranged substantially vertical, an upwardly inclined reflector disposed beneath said surface, a light source, a hollow body disposed around said light source, said body having portions for allowing the passage of light from said source to said reflector and producing thereon moving images of said portions, said body being mounted for rotation upon a vertical axis in a direction such that said images move towards the lower part of the inclined reflecting surface of said screen, said reflector having a curved surface with the concavity uppermost adapted to change the direction of movement of said images with respect to the reflecting surface of said screen and reflect thereon images moving in an upward direction.

4. An imitation fire, having in combination a light source, a screen arranged substantially vertical, a hollow body rotatably mounted around said light source, an upwardly inclined reflector disposed beneath the screen and at the side of said body, the latter having portions for allowing the passage of light beams from said source to said reflector and producing on the latter moving images of said portions, said reflector being adapted to reflect said images upwardly on to said screen.

5. An imitation fire, having in combination a pair of reflectors, a light source disposed substantially between said reflectors, a hollow body rotatably mounted around said light source, said body having portions for allowing the passage of light beams from said source to said reflectors and producing on the latter moving images of said por tions, a light receiving surface for receiving said images from said reflectors, one of said reflectors being curved in a cross section transverse to an axis passing through the axis of rotation of the body, with the concavity disposed towards said surface, and the remaining reflector being plane in a cross section transverse to an axis passing through the axis of rotation of the body.

6. An imitation fire, having in combination a screen having a light receiving surface disposed at an inclination to the horizontal, imitation fuel disposed in the front part of the fire, a casing, a pair of upwardly inclined reflectors arranged beof movement of the slits to produce on said reflectors moving images of elongated form, and

further portions for allowing the passage of light from said source to said fuel, a heat source disposed beneath the top of said body, vanes radially disposed formed in the top of the body, one of said reflectors being curved in a cross section transverse to an axis passing through the axis of rotation of the body, the remaining reflector being plane in a cross section transverse to an axis passing through the axis of rotationof the body, a member for maintaining said reflectors in spaced relationship, said member and said lamp being associated together to form a unitary structure, and means for detachably connecting said structure to said casing.

7. An imitation fire having in combination, a light source, a light receiving surface, a reflecting surface, means for transmitting to said reflecting surface light beams which are moving in substantially the same general direction, said reflecting surface being adapted to change the direction of movement of said light beams with respect to the light receiving surface and to reflect them onto said light receiving surface to produce on the latter a plurality of light images moving in substantially the same general direction.

8. An imitation fire having in combination, a'

light beams, said reflecting surface being adapted to deflect said beams and reflect them upwardly onto the screen, to produce thereon images moving in an upward direction.

9. An imitation fire having in combination, a light receiving surface, a light source, reflecting means comprising two reflecting surfaces, means for transmitting to said surfaces light beams which are moving angularly with respect to the light receiving surface, both of said reflecting surfaces being adapted to deflect said beams onto said light receiving surface to produce on the latter a plurality of moving images,and one of said reflecting surfaces being adapted to change the direction of angular movement of the beams on deflection with respect to the light receiving surface and to reflect them onto said surface to produce thereon images moving in substantially the same general direction as that of the images of the light beams deflected by the other reflecting surface.

ALBERT EDWARD NEWTON. 

